Lillian Ngoyi
{{Short description|South African anti-apartheid activist (1911–1980)}}
{{Use South African English|date=August 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lillian Matabane Ngoyi
| image = Lilian Ngoyi.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Lilian Masediba Matabane
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|09|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Pretoria, Gauteng
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1980|03|13|1911|09|25}}
| death_place = Gauteng
| nationality = South African
| other_names = Ma Ngoyi
| known_for = Fighting Apartheid, Women's rights
| occupation = Activist
}}
File:Lillian Ngoyi Avalon.jpg]]
Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Ma Ngoyi", OMSG (25 September 1911 – 13 March 1980) was a South African anti-apartheid activist.
{{cite book| isbn = 978-1-77008-160-4| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oQUTqhhJ430C| title = Lilian Ngoyi| publisher = Awareness Publishing| date = 2006| accessdate = 4 December 2011| quote = | page = 7| author = Chris Van Wyk}}
{{cite news|url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sa-christens-first-new-environmental-vessel-1.227136 |title=SA christens first new environmental vessel |newspaper=Independent Online |date=16 November 2004 |accessdate=4 December 2011 |quote=A sprinkling of holy water and a spray of champagne marked the naming of the first of South Africa's four new environmental protection vessels, the Lilian Ngoyi, in Cape Town harbour on Tuesday. |author=Richard Davies |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510191758/http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sa-christens-first-new-environmental-vessel-1.227136 |archivedate= 10 May 2013 }}
|publisher=SAinfo
|date=20 May 2005
|accessdate=4 December 2011
|quote=Lilian Ngoyi rose to prominence during the defiance campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s. She was one of the leaders of the 20 0000-women march to the Union Buildings in 1956 in protest against the pass laws.
|url-status=live
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130034249/http://southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/sustainable/update/vessels170505.htm
|archivedate= 30 November 2010
}}
{{cite news
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oQUTqhhJ430C&q=%22Lilian+Ngoyi%22+%22Chris+Van+Wyk%22+birth+OR+born+OR+death+OR+died&pg=PA7
| title = Relays in Rebellion: The Power in Lilian Ngoyi and Fannie Lou Hame
| publisher = Georgia State University
| date = 10 August 2009
| accessdate = 4 December 2011
| quote =
| page =
| author = Cathy LaVerne Freeman
| isbn = 9781770081604
}}
She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, and helped launch the Federation of South African Women.
Prior to becoming a machinist at a textile mill, where she was employed from 1945 to 1956, Ngoyi enrolled to become a nurse.{{Cite web|url = http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lilian-masediba-ngoyi|title = Lilian Masediba Ngoyi|date = 1 August 2013|access-date = 19 February 2016|website = South African History Online}} In 1962, she was given her first banning order and would not be permitted to leave her house in Orlando, Soweto for the rest of her life, except for a three year period from 1972-1975.
Early life
Ngoyi was born in Bleared Street, Pretoria.{{Cite book |last1=Bickford-Smith |first1=Vivian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hztsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Bloed+Street+lilian+masediba&pg=PT120 |title=Illuminating Lives: Biographies of Fascinating People from South African History |last2=Nasson |first2=Bill |date=2018-09-01 |publisher=Penguin Random House South Africa |isbn=978-1-77609-265-9 |language=en}} She was the only daughter of Annie and Isaac Matabane, and three brothers, Lawrence, George and Percy. Her grandfather, on her mother's side, was Johannes Mphahlele, a member of the royal Mphahlele household, who became a Methodist evangelist, working alongside Samuel Mathabathe. Ngoyi's mother worked as a washerwoman and her father was a mineworker.{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Dianne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37464653 |title=Lilian Ngoyi |date=1996 |publisher=Maskew Miller Longman |isbn=0-636-02256-0 |location=Cape Town |oclc=37464653}}{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Martha |title=Lilian Ngoyi: a heroic South African woman whose story hasn't been fully told |url=http://theconversation.com/lilian-ngoyi-an-heroic-south-african-woman-whose-story-hasnt-been-fully-told-188345 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=The Conversation |date=8 August 2022 |language=en}} Ngoyi attended Kilnerton Primary School until Standard Two.
In 1928, she moved to Johannesburg to train as a nurse at City Deep Mine Hospital, and completed three years of training in general nursing.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/910085786 |title=Everyday matters : selected letters of Dora Taylor, Bessie Head & Lilian Ngoyi |date=2015 |others=M. J. Daymond, Dora Taylor |isbn=978-1-4314-0948-8 |location=Auckland Park, South Africa |oclc=910085786}} During this time, she met and married a van driver, John Gerard Ngoyi, in 1934. They had a daughter, Edith Ngoyi. Lilian's husband died in a motor car accident in 1937, after which she became a seamstress, working both from home and in garment factories at various times. From the 1950s onwards, she lived in Orlando, Soweto, with her mother and her children.
Political activism
Having been drawn into politics via her work in the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa in the 1940s, Ngoyi first joined the African National Congress (ANC) as an associate member during the 1950 Defiance Campaign, and would be arrested for using post office facilities reserved for white people.{{Cite web |title=Lilian Masediba Ngoyi {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lilian-masediba-ngoyi |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=www.sahistory.org.za}} Ngoyi would train in the non-violent protest strategies of Satyagraha to resist the Urban Area's Act, and the expanded pass system of the Natives Act. Ngoyi joined the ANC Women's League in 1952; she was at that stage a widow with children and an elderly mother to support, and worked as a seamstress. A year later she was elected as President of the Women's League. In 1954, she helped to found the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) and was elected to the national executive of the ANC; she was the first woman to be elected to national office in the organisation.
On 9 August 1956, Ngoyi led a women's march along with Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophia De Bruyn, Motlalepula Chabaku, Bertha Gxowa and Albertina Sisulu of 20,000 women to the Union Buildings of Pretoria in protest against the apartheid government requiring women to carry passbooks as part of the pass laws. Ngoyi would command the crowd to be in complete silence for 30 minutes. This march remains the largest women's demonstration in the history of South Africa.
Lilian Ngoyi was also a transnational figure who recognised the potential influence that international support could have on the struggle against apartheid and the emancipation of black women. With this in mind she had, in 1955, embarked on an illegal journey to Lausanne, Switzerland, in order to participate in the World Congress of Mothers held by the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). Accompanied by her fellow activist Dora Tamana, and as an official delegate of FEDSAW, she embarked on a journey that would see an attempt to stow away on a boat leaving Cape Town under "white names", defy (with the help of a sympathetic pilot) segregated seating on a plane bound for London and gain entry to Britain under the pretext of completing her course in Bible studies. She would visit England, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, China and Russia, meeting women leaders often engaged in left-wing politics, before arriving back in South Africa a wanted woman.
{{cite news
|url=http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?tag=nicholas-grant
|title=Black History Month: Lilian Masediba Ngoyi (1911–1980)
|publisher=Women's History Network
|date=17 October 2010
|accessdate=5 December 2011
|url-status=live
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902142904/http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?tag=nicholas-grant
|archivedate= 2 September 2011
}}
Ngoyi would periodically lead ANC rallies against passes and on larger protests of issues in Pretoria. Ngoyi would continue to unite women, leading the third FSW conference in 1961, telling the women that "Freedom does not come walking towards you - it must be won. As women we must go on playing our part."
File:Lilian Ngoyi gives an oration at Ida Mntwana's funeral.jpg
Ngoyi was known as a strong orator and a fiery inspiration to many of her colleagues in the ANC. She was among the 156 Treason Trialists arrested in December 1956,{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Martha |title=Lilian Ngoyi: an heroic South African woman whose story hasn't been fully told |url=http://theconversation.com/lilian-ngoyi-an-heroic-south-african-woman-whose-story-hasnt-been-fully-told-188345 |access-date=2022-08-11 |website=The Conversation |date=8 August 2022 |language=en}} and was finally acquitted of the charges against her in 1960. She was rearrested more than once in the early 1960s, and spent 71 days in solitary confinement in 1963. Ngoyi spent a total of 15 years living under three five-year banning orders, which included restrictions that confined her to her home in Orlando, Soweto, and prevented her from meeting any other banned persons. Additional conditions of the banning orders included being forbidden to attend public gatherings, make speeches or be quoted; even at her own home, she was not permitted to be with more than one person at the same time. The first two banning orders were imposed in 1962 and 1967, and when the second banning order expired in 1972, she was able to meet colleagues and friends again, and travelled to Durban and Cape Town. She would travel to Robben Island to visit ANC contemporary Nelson Mandela in prison, where Mandela would commend her leadership in various organisations.{{Cite web |last=Ngoyi |first=Lillian |date=1973–75 |title=The Private Letters (of Lillian Ngoyi) 1973-75 |url=https://sthp.saha.org.za/memorial/articles/the_private_letters_1973_75.htm |website=Sunday Times Heritage Project}} In 1975, a banning order against her was imposed again; however, this time its conditions did allow her some communication with the outside world. In the last decade of Nyogi's life, she would have to depend on gifts from friends and contemporaries to survive.{{Cite web |title=SAHA / Sunday Times Heritage Project - Memorials |url=https://sthp.saha.org.za/memorial/articles/the_private_letters_1971_72.htm |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=sthp.saha.org.za}}
Memorials and honours
The Koos Beukes Clinic at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto has been renamed Lilian Ngoyi Community Clinic in her honour.
On 16 November 2004, the South African Ministry of the Environment launched the lead ship in a class of environmental patrol vessels named {{ship||Lillian Ngoyi|patrol vessel|2}} in her honour.
On 9 August 2006, the 50th anniversary of the march on Pretoria, Strijdom Square from which the women marched was renamed Lilian Ngoyi Square.{{cite news
|url=https://www.thestar.com/article/816169
|title=South Africa's street signs, place names lead to more struggle
|newspaper=Toronto Star
|date=28 May 2010
|accessdate=5 December 2011
|quote=The square now bears the name of Lilian Ngoyi, the anti-apartheid activist who, in the 1950s, led marches against laws requiring blacks to carry identification, particularly to enter white areas.
|author=Kyle G. Brown
|url-status=live
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422000416/http://www.thestar.com/article/816169
|archivedate= 22 April 2016
}}
9 August is commemorated in South Africa as Women's Day.
In 2009, a residence hall at Rhodes University was renamed in her honour.{{cite web|url=https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/deanofstudents/images/Lilian%20Ngoyi%20Hall%20End%20of%20Year%20Report%202015.pdf|title=Lilian Ngoyi Hall, End of Year Report 2015|website=Rhodes University|accessdate=17 August 2016|url-status=bot: unknown|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818020125/https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/deanofstudents/images/Lilian%20Ngoyi%20Hall%20End%20of%20Year%20Report%202015.pdf|archivedate=18 August 2016}}
In 2012, Van der Walt Street in Pretoria was renamed Lilian Ngoyi Street. Other roads in Cape Town, Thembisa, Berea, Durban, and Hartbeesfontein have been named in her honour.
The City of Johannesburg decided to honour Mme Lilian Masediba Ngoyi by renaming the Bree Street in Johannesburg after her in 2014 – the street named Lilian Ngoyi Street.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080316045933/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/lngoyi.html ANC historical documents]
- Bernstein, Hilda, 1975. For Their Triumphs and for Their Tears – Women in Apartheid South Africa, International Defence & Aid Fund, London, United Kingdom.ok
- [http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/WomensAntiPass.htm "Women's Anti-Pass Law Campaigns in South Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004131756/http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/WomensAntiPass.htm |date=4 October 2016 }}, About.com
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071114140908/http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/womens-struggle/09August/menu.htm Women's Day March – 9 August 1956]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngoyi, Lilian}}
Category:Northern Sotho people
Category:Members of the African National Congress
Category:South African anti-apartheid activists
Category:Women's International Democratic Federation people